The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1887-01-06
WHAT THE SOUTH is DOING.
Remarkable Progress in the Extsn-
sion of Railroads.
Correspondence in the National Republican

you Nlsn 10 KNOW Wnat the S0utn Is
doing go there and use your own eyes "
Such is the emphatic advice | re-
ceived three months ago from an old
friend to whom applied for informa-
tion. The point was well taken. /
started south, and after a week in
Richmond and Norfolk, went into
North Carolina, visited all its chief
centers of population and industry,
and then crossed over into South Car
olina, where | have been putting in
my time most pleasantly, and appre-
ciating more and more daily the wis
dom of my old friends counsel
North Carolina is great State,
both in area and national resources,
The push and energy everywhere en-
countered surprises me. "Is it posi-
BILE that this is the North Carolina that
has for years been sneeringly called
slow?" ! asked myself continually,
Certainly the new school and church
buildings, the large factories and mills
with pretty villages growing up around
them, the banks, warehouses. and
stores one sees, are evidences, not oI
old fogyism, but OF that healthy con
servatism embodied in Crockett
motto, BE sure you're right, then 60
ahead" That is what the people oi
North Carolina are doing. Within
ten years they have discovered the
enormous value OF their forests, theil
mines and their fisheries, and like the
sensible people they are--they are
turning them to good account.
1t must be said, however, that the
active development Of this day in al
industrial lines could not have been
but for the railroads, the Wilmington
& Welden, the Seaboard Air Line, tht
Richmond & Danville, and the West
ern North Carolina, reaching over in
to the mountains. These and tht
many small roads that act as FEEDER
to them have opened up, within few
years, regions rich in natural resource
that but for them would have contin
ued to be unimproved solitudes
While this progress has been made il
many parts Of the Piedmont anc
mountain divisions, there is in White
hill, mountain country on the Ten
nessee border, a vast body OF rich mag
netic ore Of more Importance to tn,
United States than has yet been dis
covered in another area Of equal exten
on this continent. The product 0
this ore bears the trade name OF Gran
berry iron. So valuable is this irol
for steel making and other purposes
that a narrow gauge railroad thirty
five miles lo3g was built to the mine
from Johnson City, Tenn, from whicl
/ it bears $50 tons daily.
The actual demand at this sine 70
that ore would consume daily out
put OF 5000 tons
In Virginia, but seventy miles nortl
Of this ore-bed, the marvellous Goa
measures commence that extend t
the Ohio river. When railroad cor
Meeting these coal and ore deposit
shall traverse North Carolina, manr
featuring will increase in that Stat
with unexampled rapidity, Mayo
Johnson, Of Charlotte, and sewers
leading manufacturers there, told m
that the present business was but
small fraction Of what it would b
when the Charleston, Cincinnati an
Chicago railroad had finished its lin
from Ashland, KY, to Marion, on tn
Western North Carolina road, or I
some more southerly connection,
In Wilmington the merchants al
rejoicing because the c. c. & c. wi
lay down coal at their wharves at
J price that will make their city Goa
: ing station for European and eoastin
: steamers. They expect also that /
bringing poplar, white oak, cherr
: walnut and hickory logs and lumb,
: in great quantities it will double the
+ already extensive business. Equal
: great expectations are entertained |
D business men in Raleigh, Ashevil
: and other interior cities, who watC
i the progress Of the c., c. & G. ros
i with profound interest.
Probably no enterprise Of like ma
nilude was ever prosecuted with
q little flourish of trumpets or so lit
D public talk. When operations we
, begun in North and South CaroliI
!, much curiosity was awakened, but Il
a management was reticent. Surve
IS we're made between Rutherfordton,
p the former and Blacks, a station {
Il the A. & c. air line, in this Stat
,. Grading was done and track begl
Is before the general public learned tn
l. the road-bed just completed was Il
first link Of a system that would CO
e meet Charleston harbor with the hei
q of low water navigation on the Oh
J. river at Ashland, Ky. When th